steve patterson is outside an emergency room in burbank.

our steve patterson is there. steve, this has been moving very quickly today. >> reporter: lester, protesters held this six-block area for more than three weeks. their encampment was dismantled in less than a day this morning the mayor ordered officers to retake the capitol hill protest zone. there were 30 arrests. but little in the way of violence. chop was created when the city ordered officers to abandon the east precinct on june 8th protesters declaring it a police-free zone. the mayor is facing intense backlash for not moving in sooner the police chief had called chop lawless and brutal after a series of shootings where two teenagers were killed. tonight, protesters say they plan to march across the city with police bracing for any sign of retaliation. lester >> steve patterson in seattle tonight, thanks. >>> in 60 seconds, elijah mcclain's father speaks out about the death of his son after a violent encounter with police. >>> back now with the father of elijah mcclain speaking out for the first time since a s

correspondent steve patterson with us from burbank, california, and steve, talk us through the kind of case history of what happened in california for people who haven't followed the plot line and are we looking at still, again, more cases where reopening will be rescinded and a lockdown put back in place? >> reporter: well, brian, for everybody here i think there's a history about the beginning of this virus to where we are now because it's so dramatic turnaround this state has seen, back if march, you know, when the first stay-at-home order was issued across the country, there was sort of a widespread view that this state was doing everything right, and by all respects, a lot of messaging from the governor, from state and local officials saying, wear masks, stay indoors, stay-at-home orders stuck in people's minds, but then as time went on and cases declined, there came that moment where the governor said we bent the curve and they started opening businesses back up, from that point, we have seen in more states, as ambulances roll into this hospital, where cases started spiking early

steve patterson, nbc news >>> up next, is there bias in the courtroom before the jury is even seated? >>> we turn now to our series inequality in america. a new study finds issues of systemic bias during jury selection in california in the very system that promises to be fair and balanced. here's miguel almaguer. >> reporter: tonight the demand for change is stretching beyond law enforcement and into the courtroom where nationwide black people are convicted at higher rates. >> they're prosecuted more they're arrested more. they're punished more. and very few people who look like them actually sit in judgment of them. >> reporter: brendan woods, the chief public defender, says it all begins with bias during jury selection. >> i have an african-american woman in our office here who has tried over 20 cases and she can count the number of black jurors she's had on her jury in one hand. >> reporter: discrimination is illegal, but peremptory challenges allow the prosecution and defense to dismiss potential jurors without any cause, while either side has the right to object to strikes that a

the man's account shocked the community and sparked protests here's steve patterson with the story. >> reporter: growing outrage in indiana after an alleged attack caught on camera >> let him go, dude. let him go >> reporter: video captured by a bystander posted by fox booker appears to show him pinned to a tree by white men in what he describes as an attempted lynching >> it was the most disturbing situation. >> reporter: the have you had yo does not capture what led up to the incident and nbc news hat has not identified others in the interview. the men confronted them saying he was trespassing >> there's a moment where a woman yells for him not to kill me and i realized that she's talking about killing me >> reporter: booker says he was beaten and verbally assaulted with racist speech >> you nappy headed [ bleep ]. >> reporter: one of the men yelled "get a noose. the alleged comment wasn't caught on video. his account shocked the community. >> i've known mr. booker for several years. to see what could be seen on that video was nauseating and aggravating and heartwrenching >> we gath

>> steve, thanks. >> steve patterson, thank you. joining the conversation, two of our good friends, axios reporter and dr. irwin redlener from colombia university. i want to start with california. they had a stay at home order in place for a long time. what is happening in california, can it all be attributed to human behavior, failing to wear masks and social distancing? >> hi, nicolle. there are a lot of factors, before i mention those, keep in mind, if there are 12,000 new cases, as the reporter steve was discussing, multiply that by ten. it has been repeatedly stated by experts that confirmed number, test confirmed number of 12,000 is no more than 10% of the actual total number. we're talking 120,000 cases, new cases in california. why is that happening? i think we had a rush to reopen, had too many people not following the rules, we have people instead of following health rules are following the horrendous example of the president of the united states. all of these things come together. people on the beaches without masks and d

steve patterson, public health officials in arizona are now giving residents a reality check. they're speaking out against governor ducey and what he has done. >> reporter: yeah, we'll get to that in a second, but andrea, there is breaking news overnight, arizona just updated their numbers, they added 3,600 plus new cases, meaning a total of more than 105,000, up from 101,000 yesterday. new deaths now total 65 overnight. the total there is 1,900, now close to 2,000 deaths in this state. i spoke to the public health director last night. they were concerned about the direction of the state, specifically the increase in the number of cases we've seen since the may 15 stay-at-home order lapsed. governor ducey, as we all know, let that lapse, and let businesses reopen in a very fast fashion. we saw bars open, nightclubs open, restaurants open, malls open, all really at once. the health department says they were accounting for some spike in the number of cases as things kind of settled out, but what they didn't count on in this state were people just simply not paying attention, dis

we want to begin with nbc's steve patterson. he is in los angeles. steve, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. the u.s. has now recorded more than a thousand cases four days in a row, as this virus continues ravaging hospitals and hot spots across the country. this morning, health officials and in hot spots around the country are bracing for the worst, calling states like california, florida, texas, and arizona the next new york. >> we have to change our behavior now, before this virus completely muse baoves back up h the north. >> reporter: as the cases of hospitalizations spike. >> definitely makes the day-to-day difficult, as health care workers, not knowing, when is the end? >> reporter: this week, california surpassed new york in total cases and had its own highest single-day death toll back to back. in texas, hospital workers say they're at a breaking point. >> in a perfect storm, we've had six nurses die, two doctors die. four hours ago, i was putting a chest tube in a nurse i've known for 30 years and putting them on life support. >> repor

for more, i am joined by nbc's steve patterson in phoenix and priscil priscilla thompson. eve, is the curve flattening in arizona as the vice president is saying? >> reporter: look, by all indications that's not happening when you talk to health workers in the hospital, front line workers that say the number one thing they need is more bodies, more people in hospitals that are already packed, nearing capacity. one indicator you have to look at, quarter test positive rate among all cases, that means more than it sounds like, it means according to health noiofficial based on the study that found that, that testing is so low that it is not accounting for people not sick. so when you have 25% of people testing positive, it is not getting to a core group that's asymptomatic. they may not have symptoms. that speaks to the fact not enough is being done on the ground. you have situations in which you essentially have blind spots. that speaks to the fact there may be more community spread over a longer sustained time, let's say since middle of may when stay at home order lifted to w

let's turn now to my nbc news colleagues, carol lee at the white house, steve patterson at phoenix andriscilla thompson in houston. carol, i want to start with you, the president is saying that we are going to reopen no matter what, he's claiming baselessly that the democrats want to keep schools closed, to politically hurt him. it sounds like the reality of this pandemic is not making it through the oval office. >> well, katie, it's a similar argument that we heard the president make just on reopening in general. early on when he was -- the focus was on the virus and then he wanted to shift to the economy and reopening, he talked about the reopenings in that same way, blaming democratic governors for not reopening fast enough, really putting pressure on state and local officials to do what he wanted them to do, which was reopen. and you saw in his remarks today he praised governor desantis in florida who is saying all schools are going to open this fall, saying that that was the right decision, even though florida is one of the hot spots and they don't know where that state will be at

joined now from scottsdale, arizona, by steve patterson. steve, it only took two weeks there for cases to reach 100,000 and double. how are folks there responding? >> 101 -- the number arizona adding another 3300 plus cases overnight. so if the question is how are people reacting, i mean we're in a business district. you know, been talking to some of the owners here, it's a little bit slow because we're coming off a holiday weekend, but i say, if i've seen 100 people, i think i've seen maybe ten people wearing masks. maybe less. this is obviously a crisis. people are aware of it, but i think the mentality here is that since that stay at home order lifted back in may, is that people have just simply moved on. there are many, many people on the ground here including politicians in places of power, running cities, who say that is a mistake. icu beds are at 99% capacity. normal hospital beds, 84% capacity. ventilators at crisis levels. the curve needs to be flattened here. it is simply not happening in this state. so we spoke to one woman who wa

nbc's steve patterson joins us from scottsdale, arizona, now. steve, good morning to you. what's the scene there in arizona? >> reporter: well, craig, you know, i'd like to be able to report to you that there's some big change in testing, but i can only report what the problem is, which is a crisis of capacity. the state, as you mentioned, was already in trouble when they had 50,000 cases over a short period. now, over the last two weeks, they've added 50,000 cases, which puts an incredible strain, as you mentioned, in the medical center. crisis levels in icus. crisis levels with regular hospital beds. crisis levels with ventilators. also, that strain filters down to testing capacity. last week, we saw an image, 3-mile long line of cars, people waiting six hours, people waiting eight hours, people waiting 13 hours to get tested. the people in the back of the line were told, "you know what, you have to go home because we've ran out of supplies." last week, the "new york times" report thad the biggest lab in the state to handle these covid testing cases got a request for 12,

nbc's steve patterson in glaen dale, arizona, just north of downtown phoenix. what new steps are being taken to close those testing gaps in arizona, steve? >> reporter: let's talk about what the governor has done, which is last week shutting down again clubs and bars, shutting down theaters, water parks, all in an effort to help social distance. you look at the state. about 75 pshs to 85% is covered by some sort of mandatory mask order. if you set your twitter alerts to the az department of public health, it's an endless barrage of people begging you to please put your mask on, to social distance, to wash your hands. the messaging is really aimed now at the young people in this state. young people make up the majority of the total number of cases, 62,000 out of 101,000 are people ages 44 and younger. the health department, i spoke to their director last night. they say the mission right now is to specifically target and get the messaging, get the word out to them that this is unacceptable and you're hurting people in this state. the other big one, of course, tes

nbc's steve patterson is in los angeles for us today. steve, california's ability to at one point flatten the curve was called the california miracle. now the state is adding thousands of cases a day. what's happening there? >> reporter: we remember a time in which california was held up as this gleaming example to the rest of the nation. it was set as a beacon for the rest of the country as to how to socially distance, get people off the street, flatten the curve. at one point the numbers looked like they'd be so dramatic at the beginning of this and they wound upcoming up short, so the state reopened through a number of phases, but since then there has been an explosion of cases, and the dale averages i think so far has been the scariest numbers. we're seeing about 9,000 cases statewide every single day. about 92 deaths on average every single day. of course, in different areas it's exploding even further. here in los angeles county, approximately 40% of the cases make up the state. hospitals are struggling as well. breaking records, ab

that's steve patterson joining us from phoenix.the pandemic continues, questions remain about how it might affect the lex. mail-in voting could become a necessity for millions of americans who won't be able to vote in person safely. our panel is back to discuss it. let me start with you. president trump tweeted about that saying the 2020 election will be totally rigged if mail-in voting is allowed to take place. it sounds like he's kind of sewing the seeds of not concede fg he loses which we'll discuss later a little bit further on, but how do you see this strategy of kind of sewing doubts about the election before the election? >> well, he was sewing those doubts before he thought he was going to lose in 2016 and then he won and had to backtrack and say i lost the popular vote because peel cheated then. this is pretty consistent and i think one thing you need to key in mind, though, is trump's actions are often very different from his idle reps and this talk of losing or contesting the election if for some reason he doesn't win is

nbc's sam brock is in miami for us, nbc's steve patterson is in mission hills, california. sam, let me begin with you. give us a quick read on the situation there and how officials are responding to these staggering numbers. >> eamon, good morning. you talk about mask mandates, in south florida, that has been the case for weeks now, that cities themselves required mask mandates as the governor refused to do so, so far. in miami-dade county, where i am, about a quarter of all of the cases in florida have been recorded, they have put in restrictions on where you can eat. the question becomes at what point will there be roll-backs on gyms, salons, public spaces, even beaches. to this point, our leadership here has been reluctant to put something like that in place. in the city of miami, frances suarez met with businesses the end of last week, kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop to find out if he'll roll anything back. the cases on the screen 380,000, 5,345 fatalities, the numbers in florida seem to be surging. here is the good news, eamon. in the last couple of days, un

nbc's steve patterson joins us. i mentioned the explosion. what else can you tell us about this scary scene? >> the good news is everybody is accounted for. the 17 sailors, four civilians all sustaining according to the spokes people who are handling this, minor injuries, being treated in the hospital for those minor injuries. this was a three alarm fire accompanied and confirmed by the fire department starting off with an explosion. that happened at around 8:30 this morning. the first alarm, second alarm by 9:00. third alarm by 9:50. the crew member who is normally operate the ship are trained in fire deterrent as well as the fire department that was nearby. so them working together got the fire under control in about four hours. as you mentioned, it has been spo smoking on and off for at least four years. sometimes thick black smoke. the biggest danger now is to the other ships docked there. mainly the u.s.s. fitz jirld and u.s.s. russell. both moved out to sea away from that ship that is on fire. and the chief, the fire chief there in san

let's cross over to steve patterson in tempe, arizona, some encouraging signs this morning when it comes to the numbers in arizona, which has been a hotbed over the last couple of weeks. bring us up to speed this morning. >> reporter: it is as if the acceleration has suddenly slows down. curving down over the last few weeks or so. the hospitalization rates and icu beds, the capacity is still there, near capacity, but the numbers are trending down overall case count is still high, but the daily average that we're seeing every single day come in is starting to trend down or starting to plateau. i want to get right to the former health director for -- tell me -- i mean, how did we get to the point where the numbers are starting to at least look good and then where would you say we are as far as getting out of the woods or finding the edge of the woods at this point. >> yeah, so, what happened here is we had a really successful stay at home order and when we ended that order, we went to a fully voluntary system, pretty much everything opened at the same time and we have this big explosion in

let's cross over to steve patterson in arizona. a state expected to hit the 100,000 case mark here. it took three months for arizona to hit 50,000 cases and just two weeks to add another 50,000. officials, obviously, taking this very seriously. what about residents there this morning? >> well, that's the life or death question, ayman. are people taking this seriously? that will determine the trajectory of the state moving forward. you can almost draw a line to this recent surge of cases directly to when the stay-at-home order ended on may 16th. since then there's been this incredible surge. 50,000 cases over the last two weeks. a lot of the blame officials are putting on people here were on people my age. 44 and younger. in may, they totaled about 40% of the positive cases. now they total about 60%. these are the same people we saw in images packing bars, nightclubs, restaurants, malls and now you get the sense broadly that even with these dramatic numbers that life in a lot of ways has come back to normal. and that bears out in talking to people on the ground here, people saying th

let's go to nbc news correspondent steve patterson, outside of providence, st. joseph's hospital in burbank, california. when the numbers were skyrocketing like this here in new york, the governor issued a pretty strict stay-at-home order. california has been issuing patchwork orders to try to get people to stay home. are we going to see something from the governor that is the entire state, that is more strict in order to not just flatten this curve but to bring it down? >> that's the question, i think, on the lips of everybody in this state and everybody will be watching in about an hour, is will there be more serious rollbacks, if not a complete reversal into another stay-at-home order here in california? there certainly has been signaling both by the state government and by local governments as one of the ambulances is driving behind me, that's the noise you hear. but however, the governor wants to take his time to look at the rollbacks that were just included about a week and a half ago. as you mentioned, quite a patchwork depending on where you live, but pr

. >>> let's go phoenix now where steve patterson is standing by. arizona is a state where one in every four coronavirus tests are now coming back positive. that is the highest percentage in the entire country. steve, what does that number tell us? >> reporter: chris, the official rate is 25.3%. that's higher than texas, it's higher than florida, it's higher than california, it's higher than anywhere else in the country. it means a few things according to health officials, none of them are good. first of all, when you have more testing, that rate is supposed to be much smaller. it's supposed to get smaller because the testing is reaching asymptomatic people, it's reaching people that aren't sick, it's reaching maybe people that are just looking to do a job. and so it indicates that the demand for testing is far behind the surge of the virus in this area. it also may mean that the virus is surging, that community spread has increased to a point in which it's out of control in some places and that they cannot track it. when you're not able to track thr

>> steve patterson, stay with us, over to catie beck in miami. the story there is about hospitals and more importantly icu beds, essentially hospitals there running out of them. >> reporter: that's right, ayman. they're quickly diminishing the space in icu and hospital beds across the state of florida. right now hospitals are operating at about 80% capacity in the state of florida. if you come to an area like miami-dade, more populous and hard hit by the virus, you're going to see it 90% and up at capacity. we already know there are nine hospitals in miami-dade that are at capacity right now. others are inching closer. they have seen a tremendous surge of cases here. the mayor was interviewed earlier and saying with weeks ago we were seeing between 600, 700 cases of covid-19 inside our hospitals. now that number is around 1500 cases. there is a lot of concern in this area about will we have the resources, will we have the staff and will we have the space for all of these patients that are going to be flooding in. additionally they're concerned th

let's turn to nbc's steve patterson in scottsdale, arizona. good to talk to you again. cases in arizona expected to hit a new milestone today, unfortunately. what more can you tell us about that trend? >> reporter: much like where priscilla is in texas, the state of arizona is in an absolute free fall. it took three months for the state to reach 50,000 cases. it is only taking two weeks to reach that next milestone, currently we're at 98,000 cases, we're expected to reach the grim milestone of 100,000 cases today. so who is to blame? what is to blame? we have been looking at officials, local communities, the mayor of phoenix, heavily pointing the finger in a few different directions. one of them is at the governor of this state saying the tenor of the state has been set by this being one of the last states to close down. one of the first states to reopen after there is the slightest hint of a trend downward in the cases. since then we have seen bars and restaurants and malls and nightclubs open back up. another finger that was pointed was at the age group of people that

let's go to steve patterson from phoenix with the very latest on the new poll and it comes out just a day after the state suffered the second largest covid 19 total in terms of deaths to date. steve, that is pretty rough. how are voters feeling in this battle ground state? >> reporter: you know, that is the issue that is top of the mind, when you look at all of the key issues that could be the headliner, whether it is immigration reform, whether it is jobs, the economy overall, race relations, all of that, if not overshadowed completely by covid is colored by it. the state of arizona, over 160,000 cases and 3,000 deaths and yesterday, excuse me, the second highest death toll that the state has recorded so far. and while the numbers are starting to plateau, if not decline in some cases, remember that in the month of june this state led in infection rate across the country. that is factoring into the numbers in the new poll that we're seeing including biden versus trump in the gap in registered voters who are looking at support for who could do a better job in dealing with the coronavir

joining me from glendale, arizona is msnbc correspondent steve patterson. good to have you with us. what are officials there doing to catch up to this spike in cases that they are now attributing to that rapid reopening of the state back in may? >> well, let's talk about that correlation. it's undeniable. as soon as that stay at home order ended we saw that trend go up. the number of cases. it was first 10,000, maybe every few weeks. then it was 10,000 every week. and now we're in a situation where we're adding 10,000 cases in the state of arizona every few days. so what's being done? some say not enough. the messaging seems to be the biggest strategy. it's hammering on the fact of points we've been hearing since the beginning of this crisis from the federal government. wash your hands. social distance. stay six feet away. wear a mask. there's a mask mandate in most of the state. some 75% to 85% of the state is covered under some order to wear a mask. no matter where you are at all times. but there are segments of the state that don't have that as well. a lot of this is directed tow

steve patterson is outside an emergency room in burbank. steve, is california getting any closer to reimposing a shutdown? >> well, stephanie, one thing we know about california is that the leadership here is not afraid to do it. remember that california is one of the first states in the country to implement a stay-at-home order. now the word from state officials is that the governor's finger is on that metaphorical dimmer switch, that we could roll back into another stay-at-home order. we want to look at the databased on the rollbacks that happened a week and a half ago, bars, indoor dining, gyms, religious spaces, office spaces for counties that are hardest hit across california. looking at california, that's about 80% of the state. so already we've seen significant rollbacks in the state. it's particularly bad in a place like l.a., los angeles county, 11 million people. 40% of the cases across the state, about 160,000 cases here in l.a. county alone. l.a. city mayor eric garcetti has signaled over and over again that they could roll back

with me now from maricopa county, arizona, is nbc news correspondent steve patterson. uch of this has to do with someone's ability to get a test? >> well, i mean, we have heard anecdotally and i interviewed people who have done widespread testing. we have seen the lines anecdotally, hours of long waits for people that are trying to get tested and then days long waits for people who are waiting for results, but this number, the positivity rate, is directly linked to a state's ability or their progress of how widespread the testing is. that is because when you are testing more people, the positivity rate in theory is supposed to shrink. it's because you're testing more people that aren't just symptomatic. you're testing asymptomatic people, people with mild establishes. maybe no symptoms. they're you're testing people who are just trying to get a test so they can just get back on a job or something similar to that. when you're testing people at that rate, that means access is limited because the testing is being limited to people who are the most sick. and that speaks to

we have steve patterson joining us live in los angeles. steve, a lot of people in california are saying they may get a case of whiplash. some are warning of a possible shutdown again out there. >> reporter: yeah. you know, there has been signaling from the governor and mayor of los angeles. saying they are waiting and watching the data to make that decision. still the virus is just ravaging hot spots. including here and across the country. take a look. this morning, officials are bracing for the worst. calling states for california, florida and texas and arizona the next new york. >> we have to change our behavior now before this virus completely moves back up through the north. >> reporter: as the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths spike. >> definitely makes the day-to-day difficult as health care workers which is not knowing when is the end. >> reporter: this week, california surpassed new york in total cases and the highest single day death toll back-to-back. in texas, hospital workers are at a breaking point. >> we had six nur

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for more we're joined by steve patterson. i guess that is the big question.unty is thinking of a full-fledged stay-at-home. one of the other things i've read is it will take the state fik weeks to figure out if what they're doing is working. >> reporter: that's the problem. when you calculate everything based on what you did in the past to really get the facts and figures to determine the future, you have to wait at least two weeks, but as far as you mentioned, as five weeks. in that time we're seeing these astronomical numbers, the sin e single-day total. the seven-day rates, when you look at those, those numbers are dramatic. 94 had you be 9400 cases on average. the death rate is in the 90s. the positive rate, which determines how much so much testing is accurately happening and how much they have a handle on the spread of the virus, that has jumped up once again. people are now wondering, not a matter of if, but a matter of when, and when those businesses factor that into the fact there's been so much unemployment in the area, specifically in l.a. county,

steve patterson is on the ground in phoenix with more.en has the advantage with latino voters, 61% for him versus 31% for the president. with voters under 45, 57 to 36. women, 57 to 38. independents, 55 to 38 and whites with college degrees, 51 to 44 percent. what does this tell us, steve? >> reporter: i think before you can dial into the numbers, it tells you about the electorate itself. i think a lot of people think of arizona as this generational gold water republican layup for the gop. it's sense long since stopped being that. there's been an influx of latin x immigrants that have come to the state of arizona. there's been an influx of millennial young people from more left leaning states like california that have come to the state of arizona. arizona is a very centrist, especially when you look at the core of voters. i think when you move away from the center, things get a little bit murky. the gaps were nowhere near as big. since then, one thing that's happened is the massive spike in the number of covid cases. the coronavirus is to

. >> let's bring in steve patterson.nor newman prepared to roll back even more reopening numbers as cases multiply. is that the direction he's going? >> reporter: by all indications, the governor is prepared to roll back. the l.a. city mayor is prepared to roll back. it's just getting a sense from around the city and across the state, it's really a question of if, and more of a preparation for when, unless there is a dramatic increase or turnaround in the numbers, that's where we're heading. the numbers aren't even slowing down at this point. california right now seeing 9,000 new cases every single day, about 92 deaths every single day, and, you know hospitalizations have jumped up some 16%. there have been indications from officials that there are things that can help, and stop me if you've heard any of these before, but personal accountability, testing, and of course, contact tracing. that last point is something that l.a. county has been specifically really drilling down on. they want to add up to 2600 contact tracers

we've got reporters spread out across this nation and i want to go first to california where steve patterson is standing by in the l.a. neighborhood of mission hills. steve, how are they trying to get their arms around this? it feels out of control. >> it does. stephanie, the governor says his sole focus right now is on hospitals making sure they have enough staffing, enough ppe, enough surge capacity like the tents you see behind me. the triage tent over my left shoulder. and also making sure there are enough testing sites, beefing up the number of testing sites and trying to get a handle on contact tracing. trying to keep it on track with the incredible spread of this virus. but the true epicenter of the virus here in california is right here in l.a. county. over the last four days, they've had more than 2,000 hospitalizations every single day. they are keeping on track with that rate. and also covid in l.a. county is now on track to be the second leading cause of death behind coronary heart disease. covid has killed twice as many people in the first six months here in l.a. county in 2020

nbc's steve patterson is there. walk us through the history, what's been going on for two weeks and what happened today. >> reporter: stephanie, i'm going to have to get in close because we've got a situation where protesters are here and they're angry. police have blocked off the entire -- exactly what we're talking about. excuse me. we're reporting your message, guys. we're reporting your message. stay on me. we'll come this way. police have created a line. this is where we've created part of the perimeter. an executive order came from the mayor, basically executing this operation. they gave them about five to ten minutes to get out of the zone and then they swarmed in the zone. it was so quick that it was almost as if it was a covert mission, but you see that it certainly wasn't. you continue to hear protesters. they're very agitated, as you can imagine. a lot of them feel like this is their home. follow me this way, steve. follow me this way. we want to stay out of their view, obviously. you can see just the lev

let's get out to steve patterson joining me live from phoenix.y familiar with where you're standing. i have done many live shots from that capitol building. i think i can hear the cicadas behind you as well. this poll is a big deal. >> this poll is a very big deal. and i think what it's showing is that the two issues which are the numbers with politics and the pandemic are inextricably linked. being where you have been and talking to voters, at least in the melt row phoenix area, there's no bigger issue more top of mind than the coronavirus. this state has been hit extremely hard. more than 160 cases. n more than 3,000 cases on saturday. this state recorded its second highest death toll in this virus. some of the numbers are starting to trend down, but in the month of june, this had the highest infection rate out of anywhere else in the country. you see that reflected specifically when you look at biden versus trump. you see biden with a five-point advantage. when you look at the number of registered voter thinking about who's going to do best in

ayman. >> steve patterson live for us. steve, thank you. >>> coming up after the break, we're going to speak to new jersey congressman andy kim. congress is now demanding an explanation from the white house and this administration with what it knew regarding intelligence that russia may have paid the taliban money to kill american soldiers in avenue st afghanistan. st afghanistan. afghanistan. afghanistan. afghanistan. afghanistan. afghanistan. afghanistan. afghanistan. anistan. afghanistan. afghanistan. you can explore endless options at every price point. get your outdoor oasis delivered fast so you can get the good times going. ♪ wayfair. you've got just what i need. ♪ they're going to be paying for this for a long time. they will, but with accident forgiveness allstate won't raise your rates just because of an accident, even if it's your fault. cut! sonny. was that good? line! the desert never lies. isn't that what i said? no you were talking about allstate and insurance. i just... when i... let's try again. everybody b

steve patterson is there for us. so it seems to me, steve, like almost everything in arizona is trending in the wrong direction. you have cases and hospitalizations surging. testing is a mess. i've heard about lines going on for hours and hours to get testing. how did things get so bad? >> well, chris, i had a thorough conversation with doctors from the department of public health, including the director last night. and they were not shy to admit that there say direct correlation in the explosion of the number of cases we're seeing and the governor's lifting of the stay-at-home order back in mid-may. they said at the time, obviously, cases were trending downward. they saw mental health trending downward in the population. that's legitimate and something we've seen across the country. and also that they expected the cases to increase in some respect. what they did not count on was the almost total disregard for the virus with certain segments of the population. people packing bars and nightclubs and malls and restauran

my colleague steve patterson is there. after all these weeks of numbers going up and up, is arizona finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel? >> stephanie, if the question truly is, is arizona seeing that light finally at the end of the tunnel? the answer is definitely no. the case count per capita is still far too high. death count per capita far too high. the positivity rate is still very too high to make that determination. but if the question is, are there finally some encouraging signs, then, yeah, there are. there's about a 15% difference in case count from the beginning of july to where we are towards the end of july. the daily average of new cases is somewhere now in the mid-2000s where a month ago it was in the mid-3000s. hospitals are starting to report plateaus in the number of bed occupancy and icu occupancy. however, you know, if your foot is still on the pedal but you stabilize the car at over 100 miles an hour, that's still a scary car ride. the hospitals have stabilized but over 80% in both beds and

with me now is nbc's steve patterson on the ground in seattle, following all of these moving developments. tell us more about the arrests made this morning, and the operation that is under way. >> reporter: yeah, look, you can imagine this is incredibly dynamic. i'm going to stay close to you. there may be some protesters. you can see some of the protesters here, we believe that a few of these are chop residents. i know a few of their faces, they're obviously extremely upset. the mayor did this very quickly. signed the executive order to come in, and about 2:00 this morning, by about 4:58, it was posted to the city's website, by 5:00 you had police swarming all over this neighborhood. telling people to get out and then moving in. by 5:08, this entire perimeter was established, police just about at every intersection in the capitol hill neighborhood, all along the borders of chop. we heard reports that police have made several arrests, as you mentioned, ten that we know of, but we have seen a few visible. haven't seen any tear gas, haven't seen any pepper spray. we heard maybe some pepper